


Vested Interest

by Fig Newton (sg_fignewton)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Canonical Minor Character Death, Episode Related, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 05:18:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11867550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sg_fignewton/pseuds/Fig%20Newton
Summary: The geeks make good tac vests, but they're no help if they're not actually worn. Jack and his thoughts in the wake ofHeroes.





	Vested Interest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Curuchamion](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curuchamion/gifts).



> Birthday fic written in October 2010 for the prompt "Jack O'Neill, tac vest."

It's a tactical vest, not a hand grenade. But Jack picks it up like it's about to explode. 

It's heavier than the old kind, and that's before he loads it with the regular items on the list and the not-so-regular additions that SG teams have found so useful off-world. Jack is all too conscious of that difference in weight, and it twists his thinking onto paths where he really doesn't want to go.

The SGC scientists designed this vest. It's a good one, Jack knows.

And yet...

It's a grand old tradition for soldiers of all stripes to hold scientists and researchers in contempt. After all, what do they know about _real_ life? They never spend days on end in rain and mud, trying to empty water out of their boots, or learn to carefully ration water so they won't collapse of dehydration in desert conditions. They know nothing about life in the field, about tears and blood and shaking hands with death, that old friend and nemesis. They only have their shiny pie charts and bright, clean numbers that tell them how things _ought_ to be. None of them know the first thing about the way things really _are._

Jack thought that way, too, in the days Before Daniel. Then the sneezy geek jumped in front of a staff weapon to spare Jack's life. It's hard to be contemptuous of scientists when one of them saves your team, helps you lead a rebellion, and then gets you and your people home.

For a while, in that first year After Daniel, Jack puts the guy into his own category. It's not as if Daniel fits neatly into any other category, anyway. So Jack still keeps his contempt for scientists, with a little asterisk labeled "except Dr. Daniel Jackson" in very small print. Daniel is different, fair enough, but all the _other_ scientist types are just a waste of time.

Then Jack meets Samantha Carter and tries to put her in the regular scientist category, and discovers that he can't. And he's smart enough, and honest enough, to recognize that it's time to do a little reshuffling of the old categories. It's lazy thinking to assume that he just so happens to know the only two scientists that aren't useless. Besides, everything at the SGC is so dependent on science and technology that the geek factor is exponentially increased. He has to deal with them, whether he likes it or not. So he might as well learn to approach them on their own terms.

For the most part, Jack foists the scientists and researchers on Daniel and Carter. That usually works well. But Jack learns, over time, to appreciate the SGC nerds that seem to live on nerves and coffee and M&Ms. They'll never be friends of his, and it's sometimes hard to be civil with them. But they come up with better ways to kill the Goa'uld, and save his team's lives with better equipment or improved understanding of the Gate. He'd still rather keep them at arms' length, but geeks definitely have their uses.

There are exceptions, of course. Jack can't abide any kind of incompetence, whether it's military or scientific. Happily, the SGC has a very small ratio of incompetents in any shape or color, but Jack doesn't even bother to try to hide his contempt for the few that slip between the cracks and make his life miserable. The SGC is on the front lines; there's no room for incompetent stupidity. If a few choice words and gestures will get rid of the stupid types more quickly, then he's all for it.

Still, most of the SGC scientists are a decent bunch. They do good work.

But today, as Jack carefully buckles the tac vest over still-tender ribs, he isn't thinking about the geeks who created the special insert that saved his life from a point-blank staff weapon blast. For all he appreciates that competence and dedication from a bunch of scientists who never really go out in the field, his thoughts are elsewhere: on the scientist who _did_ go out into the field, who combined smarts and skill with humor and courage, and who died in the hope that another might live.

He's glad the geeks made the vest for him.

He just wishes Janet would have put one on, too.


End file.
